Hope and Fear (episode)
Series: VOY Season: 4 Original Airdate: 1998-05-20 Production Number: 194 Year: 2374 Stardate: 51978.2 Story by: Rick Berman & Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Teleplay by: Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed by: Winrich Kolbe Starfleet sends a new, advanced starship to bring the crew of the Voyager home, but Janeway is suspicious of this unexpected gift. (Season Finale) Summary During their off hours, Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway are on the holodeck playing a game of Velocity. The Captain wins six out of ten rounds, frustrating the ex-drone who has superior visual acuity and stamina and believes she should have been able to win every round. Janeway tells her that there's more to winning the game than that, including intuition. Seven however considers intuition a "human fallacy". She wants another rematch, but Janeway tells her the game's over and leaves. At 0600 in the morning, Janeway sits in the mess hall trying to decrypt the message they received from the Alpha Quadrant five months ago via the Hirogen communications network. Chakotay enters and Janeway realizes she has been there all night. He suggests that the Captain enlist Seven's help, and she agrees that Seven would probably have a few Borg algorithms that could help, but since she and Seven have been butting heads more than usual, Janeway isn't sure it would do any good to ask. Chakotay hypothesizes that Seven merely feels that she, the pupil, has outgrown her mentor. Janeway seems uncertain whether that is the case. The Delta Flyer returns to Voyager from a trading colony where Tom and Neelix loaded up on supplies. One of the locals, Arturis, was very helpful and Neelix wanted to repay him by bringing him on board and granting him passage to the next system. Neexlix explains to the Captain that while he was negotiating with an xenon-based life form, the Universal Translator went offline and it was Arturis that came to the rescue. Arturis' people have the ability to learn alien languages usually after only hearing a few words, just enough to grasp the grammar and syntax. Janeway agrees to grant him passage and welcomes him aboard. While walking through the corridor, Janeway and Arturis continue their conversation about his people's abilities. Arturis remains modest and says that most species have natural abilities that others do not. Some being born with superior strength, others, like Janeway's crew, are born with great generosity of spirit, while his people can see patterns where others see confusion. This gives Janeway an idea. Later on, Janeway, Seven, and Arturis are in Astrometrics reviewing the damaged data stream from Starfleet. Arturis notices the problem and is able to reconstruct most of the data. Part of includes a spatial grid which turns out to be a map of a nearby sector less than ten light years away. The group heads to the bridge once they arrive and find that the coordinates Starfleet provided led them to another Starfleet vessel. It is a design they have not seen before, and there are no life signs aboard. Janeway orders an away team to secure the vessel while they continue work on decoding the rest of Starfleet’s message. Chakotay, Paris, and Tuvok beam aboard the other ship where they discover the ship's name is the USS Dauntless, registry NX-01A, launched on stardate 51472. Chakotay is shocked that the ship has traveled 60,000 light years in just three months. Paris meanwhile studies the helm and finds the ship was set on auto-pilot meaning it likely did not have a crew. Just then, the ship suddenly powers up and jumps into slipstream. The away team finally figures out how to bring the ship back into normal space, but in just a few minutes they had traveled over 15 light years. It takes Voyager two days at high warp to catch up with the Dauntless, during which time Arturis has reconstructed a Starfleet message from Admiral Hayes. Standing in the briefing room, the senior staff watches as the Admiral explains that while slipstream technology is still experimental, he believes it is safe and encourages the crew to use the ship to return home. After the messages ends, Janeway asks the Doctor about any health risks. He says the away team suffered no ill effects, and that long term effects are unlikely. The crew seems ready and willing to go, but Seven points out that returning on the Dauntless would mean abandoning Voyager. Janeway tells Paris to start examining ways to incorporate the slipstream technology into Voyager so they can bring the ship with them if possible. Meanwhile, B'Elanna and Harry are sent to study the technology in further detail and learn how to shut it down in a moments notice. After being dismissed everyone, except Tuvok, leaves. Janeway confides in him that this all seems too perfect, and Tuvok agrees. Janeway says she felt something was wrong since the moment Arturis beamed on board, but she couldn't put her finger on what exactly. The Captain decides to proceed as planned for now, but tells Tuvok to keep an eye or Arturis and try to find out more about him. While making their daily logs, both Janeway and Seven express their feelings about recent events. Janeway wants to remain optimistic but still has her doubts that something is amiss, while Seven is afraid she may not be able to adapt to human civilization should they succeed in returning to Earth. Seven, Harry, and B'Elanna work together in the Dauntless' engineering and successfully figure out how to drop out of slipstream. Both Harry and B'Elanna are excited being another step closer to home, but Seven remains neutral. Harry leaves to talk to Arturis, leaving Seven and B'Elanna to discuss the prospect of returning to the Alpha Quadrant. Seven is puzzled as to why Torres is eager to get home when, as a former Maquis, she is likely to face nothing but adversity. B'Elanna tells her that she would rather face the music at home than spend the rest of her life in the Delta Quadrant. B'Elanna then tells Seven that being an ex-Borg, she is likely to face even more adversity than Torres and jokes that they will be outcasts together. Seven is not amused and Torres tells her to work on her sense of humor as it will help her make friends back on Earth. Harry calls out to Seven from under the gantry where he is studying his tricorder. He tells Seven there is an anomalous energy surge behind a panel, and Seven replies that there are no power conduits running through that section. He tries to make conversation with Seven, telling her how great Earth is, but Seven is still unimpressed with the idea of returning. As she leaves to speak with the Captain, Harry tells her that Voyager wouldn't be the same without her, which elicits a small smile. Kim turns back to his work, opening the panel where the energy readings were emanating from. There is a flash and Kim is surprised by his tricorder readings. Then the portion of the bulkhead he is studying shimmers and briefly reveals alien technology. Quickly though, the wall is replaced by an image of Federation technology. Disappointed, he hails Tuvok and reports that he has found something that qualifies as unusual. Seven enters Astrometrics and finds Janeway still working on reconstructing the rest of the data stream which Arturis said was too badly damaged. Janeway however feels he gave up too easily which Seven identifies as intuition. Janeway clarifies that it's only intuition if she's right. While Janeway works, Seven tells her that she will not be returning with them to the Alpha Quadrant, bringing Janeway's work to an abrupt halt. The Captain turns to Seven and says she understands how the prospect of being among billions of humans must be overwhelming for the former drone, but she is part of the crew now, and Earth is her home. Janeway reminds Seven of how far she's come in the last nine months and urges her not to turn her back on humanity now. Seven becomes defensive, saying that Janeway had failed to shape Seven in her own image and that she does not share her values. Seven believes that Janeway's drive to explore space is inefficient, that her need for family connections is a weakness, and that her infatuation with Earth is irrational. Janeway tells Seven that the crew needs her expertise on this mission, which Seven replies is irrelevant. The Captain reminds her that the crew has given her a lot and that it was time she repaid some of that debt. Angry Seven replies that she has, on many occasions. But for once she refuses. Janeway still refuses to set Seven adrift in the middle of the Delta Quadrant alone surviving only on "Borg perfection". Then Janeway realizes Seven's real problem is her fear; Seven is afraid of returning to Earth. The argument is interrupted by a computer beep. Janeway discovers the new algorithm she developed has worked in reconstructing the data stream. At first she's confused when the image of Admiral Hayes appears, but Janeway realizes this is a completely different message than the one Arturis decoded. In this message, the Admiral apologizes that they have not yet found a way to get Voyager's crew home, but they were providing all the information they could on the Delta Quadrant in hopes it could at least shave a few years off their journey. The Captain hangs her head in disappointment, and Seven comments that her intuition was correct. Janeway's disappointment is quickly replaced by anger when she realizes Arturis has been lying to them all along. She hails Tuvok, who is on the Dauntless and reports Harry's discovery. Janeway tells him to go to the bridge where Arturis is, but not to tip their hand until she and a security team arrives. On the Dauntless bridge, Arturis nearly manages to engage the slipstream drive, but B'Elanna stops him, thinking it was only a mistake. Tuvok enters the bridge and a few seconds later Janeway, Seven, and a security team beams in, phasers drawn. Janeway orders Torres to evacuate the repair teams, then proceeds to accuse Arturis of fabricating the Starfleet message. Arturis denies it and tries to accuse Seven of tampering with the message. Janeway doesn't buy it and orders Tuvok to take Arturis to Voyager's brig. A struggle ensues, but Arturis manages to knock the security back and flips a switch which replaces the image of Federation technology to it's true alien form. He then erects a forcefield and tries to deflect Voyager's transporters, but Harry manages to retrieve everyone but the Captain and Seven before the ship jumps into slipstream. On Voyager, Chakotay orders Tom to bring the warp core modifications online and pursue the Dauntless. Paris points out that they haven't even had a trial run yet, but Chakotay replies there's no time like the present. On the Dauntless, Janeway tries a diplomatic approach to reasoning with Arturis, but he is unimpressed. He reveals that the Borg had finally broken through their defenses and that the Borg's war with Species 8472 was their last hope. If Species 8472 had won, it would have been the end of the Borg, instead Janeway's negotiations with the collective ruined that chance, and eventually Arturis' home world was destroyed. He was one of the lucky few that managed to escape, and he made it his mission to make Janeway pay for what she'd done by turning her into a drone. He had hoped to get her entire crew, but settles for just Seven and Janeway. He tells them in a matter of ours they will return to his home world inside Borg space. While in the brig of the Dauntless, Janeway uses a microfilament to adjust Seven's cranial implant, allowing her to use her Borg technology to walk through the force field. While the Captain makes the adjustments, Seven confesses that she was right about Seven being afraid of visiting Earth. She is no longer Borg but doesn't feel completely human either and is unsure where she belongs. Janeway tells her she belongs on Voyager. With the adaptations complete, Seven and Janeway escape and head for engineering. With their commandes being blocked from the bridge, Janeway goes to confront Arturis and tells Seven to send a power surge to the starboard thrusters and at least turn the ship in the wrong direction if they can't stop it. Despite the sharp turn, Arturis manages to maintain control of the ship. Captain Janeway arrives on the bridge and he tells her there's only four minutes left before they reach Borg space. Janeway again tries to talk her way out, but Arturis says revenge is all he has left and destroys the navigational control so that not even he can stop the ship now. Voyager however closes in on the Dauntless and fires on them. Arturis realizes his shields are down and grabs a phaser to shoot Janeway, but she is beamed out just in time. With their crewmen onboard, Voyager does a complete turn about and heads back they way they came. They manage to get 300 hundred light years closer to home before the slipstream drive completely collapses. The Dauntless meanwhile, returns to normal space and is instantly greeted by two Borg cubes. The next day Janeway and Seven are back on the holodeck for another game of Velocity, which Janeway continues to win. Seven wants to leave early to attempt to design a new method of traveling at slipstream without damaging the ship. Janeway is surprised since Seven had been so intent on staying in the Delta Quadrant before. Seven tells the Captain that as they approached Borg space, she re-evaluated her future and found that becoming a drone again was unappealing. Janeway tells her it sounds like she's starting to embrace her humanity. Seven denies this, but admits nothing is impossible. Janeway smiles and tells the computer, "One more game." Background Information MISC. NOTES Links and References Guest Stars *Ray Wise as Arturis *Jack Shearer as Admiral Hayes *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) References Chapman; Borg Collective; Borg cube; [[USS Dauntless|USS Dauntless]]; Delta Quadrant; Kathryn Janeway; quantum slipstream drive; Seven of Nine; Species 116; Starfleet Command; trinary code; velocity; [[USS Voyager|USS Voyager]] External links Five-Minute "Hope and Fear" Previous Episode: One Episodes of Star Trek: Voyager Next Episode: Night Category:VOY episodes